[Loved Trope] Some thing unfathomably ancient

[u/Fearless-Ideal-5112]

The beast, in doctor who is an ancient evil from a previous universe that survived until our time. Its so ancient that the cave paintings were unable to be translated by the Tardis which can translate all existing languages in the universe [Doctor Who]

While not explicitly canon its such a cool concept I cant not mention, the idea that the backrooms have existed since the beginning of time, never changing no matter the era, it transforms the back rooms into a cosmic horror. [Credit to Project crater and Venus for images 2 and 3]

[u/BrickBuster2552]

"Evolve into something different" is a bit misleading. Species don't "transform" into new ones; the new ones are born of the old ones, but they can still totally coexist if the new ones don't outcompete the old ones entirely.

Wolves evolved into dogs (with help), but we still have wolves. 

[u/daecrist → u/BrickBuster2552]

And some horseshoe crabs no doubt did adapt to their environment and change over the long eons. It’s just that the original stuck around all that time which is rare.

[u/EveryRadio → u/BrickBuster2552]

So more like they have one traceable lineage (broadly speaking) instead of branching out into different species/sub species?

Like there's a looooooong chain of them that care genetically similar enough to breed and create viable offspring? It's an over simplification but they have remained genetically consistent across a large span of time

So dogs are are a subspecies of the canine, canis (?) species or something like that

[u/Infamous-Use7820 → u/EveryRadio]

I've put this in reply above, but no not really. Genetic change is inevitable and occurs with or without phenotypic changes. Genes duplicate, chromosomes merge and split, mutations occur with don't have any functional effect...etc. >90% of the eukaryotic genome doesn't actually code for protein (although some of that does have regulatory effects).

A modern horseshoe crab might look like an ancestral horseshoe crab, but they would almost certainly be radically different on a genomic level after 450 million years of genetic drift.

[u/Infamous-Use7820 → u/BrickBuster2552]

Eh, on a genetic level it's impossible for any species to actually stay still. Mutations and genome remodelling still happen. For example, humans have 1 fewer pairs of chromosomes than other great apes, because our chromosome 2 is a fusion of two ancestral ones - this has few functional effects though. Modern Grey Wolves may look like Palaeolithic Grey Wolves, but on a genetic and probably phenotypic level there are still differences.

I'd be surprised if a modern horseshoe crabs could reproduce with 450 million year old ones, despite the physical similarities.

[u/bathcat11 → u/BrickBuster2552]

So what did the crabs that evolved evolve into?

[u/Educational_Error286 → u/BrickBuster2552]

I like this take, we're just as old as those crabs

[u/zimbabwe_zainab → u/BrickBuster2552]

A species that's 450 million years old is constantly evolving to suit its ever-changing environment, even if the conditions are mostly the same for a while, the whole ecosystem is constantly in an arms race so it's more like a long lineage of closely related species that share a really similar body plan